The Resolution Law Group, P.C., is a premier boutique law firm engaging in high-stakes commercial and private disputes, encompassing a broad range of legal services. With a national complex litigation practice and a strategic alliance of contract litigators and law firms, seasoned in targeted legal disciplines, we have emerged as a firm taking on consumer advocacy at the national level.

The federal district court in Manhattan has turned down former Goldman Sach’s (GS) trader Fabrice Tourre’s request that he get a new civil securities fraud trial after he was found liable on seven counts of federal securities law violations related to his involvement in the firm’s sale of the Abacus 2007-AC1, which is a synthetic collateralized debt obligation that was backed by residential mortgage-backed securities. Goldman has already paid a $550 million fine over the matter.

The district court is saying that his claim that there was no evidence backing a finding that he violated Section 17(a)(20) of the Securities Act by getting property or money via the alleged fraud can’t be supported. The court noted that to prove liability this section of the Act does not make it necessary for the SEC to show that Tourre got a “fraud bonus”—only that he got the property or money through omission or material statement. The court said Tourre could have given evidence to show that the compensation he received from Goldman would have been the same without such a transaction, but since he didn’t put on a case during his trial the jury was free to infer otherwise.

The court noted that there was sufficient evidence backing the jury’s finding that the ex-Goldman Sachs trader’s conduct abetted and aided violations of SEC regulations. Also, the court is rejecting Tourre’s contention that he should get a new trial because he believes that the other court acted inappropriately when it took away from the jury the question of whether the swaps agreements involved were security based swap agreements within the meaning of securities law. This court said that for securities law purposes, the swap agreements were security-based swap agreements, and it granted summary judgment to the SEC on this.

The Resolution Law Group represents RMBS fraud and CDO fraud customers that have lost money due to the negligence of members of the securities industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance has given relief to Nomura Holdings, Inc. over an entry in the final judgment issued against its subsidiary Instinet, LLC last month. The staff said that Nomura made a good cause showing under 1933 Securities Act Rule 405(2), and now the SEC says it won’t consider the company an ineligible issuer even with the entry of that final judgment.

The SEC opened up an administrative proceeding action against Instinet, accusing it of purposely abetting and aiding and violating sections of the Investment Advisers Act. The claims involved purported soft dollar payments.

J.S. Oliver Capital Management, L.P., an Instinet customer, had asked for the payments for expenses it did not tell clients about. The Commission says that Instinet made the payments per JS Oliver’s request, even though there were red flags indicating that the requests for payment approval were improper. The Nomura subsidiary turned in a settlement offer that led to a cease-and-desist order against the brokerage firm, & the regulator accepted the settlement offer.

Responding to a no-action request from Exelon Corp. to leave out from the latter’s proxy materials a shareholder proposal for a pay ratio cap for certain named executives, this SEC division said the proposal would be excluded unless it is redrafted (or a request is made to the board of directors). SEC staff did not agree with Exelon that the proposal, which concentrates on senior executive compensation-related policies, was misleading, false, or pertained to mere ordinary business.

Canadian-registered portfolio management firm Qube Investment Management Inc. turned in the proposal, asking that the compensation committee or the board restrict how much each named Exelon executive officer could make to no more than 100 times the median annual total paid to all company employees. Qube said that at least one Exelon executive is making 200 times the pay of the average American worker.

Exelon argued that the proposal would properly limit the power of tis board to decide compensation, and under Pennsylvania law this subject was not appropriate for action by shareholders.

SEC staff agreed that there was some ground’s for Exelon’s argument about the proposal not being appropriate subject for shareholder action or that it could cause the company to violate state law. That said, staff noted that the defect could be fixed if it was reframed as a request or a recommendation.

In other SEC news, the Commission has just issued final rules to make clear the roles of its ethics counsel and general counsel. The regulator’s general counsel is to advise staff lawyers about professional duties arising from their official duties, as well as probe allegations of professional misbehavior. As for its ethic’s counsel, the SEC said its job did not include looking into allegations about professional misconduct or making referrals to the authorities. The rules and accompanying modification/clarifications will go into effect once they appear in the Federal Register.

Also, the SEC has sanctioned Axius Holdings, LLC. for violating Regulation M’s Rule 105. The Commission claims that Axius took part in 13 offerings that the rule covers between June 2008 and March 2010 and then went on to short the stock of the companies during the restricted periods.

As a result of these alleged trading activities, Axius and its owner Henry Robertelli purportedly made profits of about $31,000. Now, the two of them must pay disgorgement in that approximate amount, plus prejudgment interest and a monetary payment.

The Resolution Law Group is a securities fraud law firm that represents institutional investors and high net worth individuals in recovering their money.

A US judge has ordered Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s (RBS) banking unit in Japan to pay a $50 million fine over its involvement in manipulating LIBOR. RBS Securities Japan Ltd. entered a guilty plea to wire fraud as part of its parent company’s $612 million securities settlements to resolve civil and criminal charges over the rate manipulation.

On December 31, RBS Securities Japan and the US government turned in a joint court filing stating that from at least between 2006 and 2010 some of the bank’s traders tried to move Libor in a manner that would benefit their positions. The attempted manipulation of over a hundred Yen Libor submissions was reportedly involved.

Authorities say that as a result traders profited at counterparties’ expense. The filing noted that investigations uncovered wrongful behavior involving Libor submission for the yen and another currency and that about 20 RBS traders, including four at the RBS unit in Japan were involved.

Breaking down the $612 million total that RBS and RBS Securities Japan are paying to resolve these Libor claims: $325 million is from a Commodity Futures Trading Commission action, $137 million is from a U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) action. Aside from the $50 million that the RBS unit in Japan is also paying, $100M is from RBS plc.

LIBOR
LIBOR is the main benchmark for short-term interest rates around the world. It is the reference rate for a lot of interest rate contracts, credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and other lending products for consumers. Other banks have already paid fines for also allegedly manipulating LIBOR, including Deutsche Bank (DB), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), and others. Traders at these banks are accused of manipulating LIBOR to their benefit, while making themselves appear more liquid and financially healthier than what was actual. Meantime, other parties sustained losses as a result.

If you feel you are the victim of Securities Fraud, please do not hesitate to email or call the The Resolution Law Group (203) 542-7275 for a confidential, no obligation consultation.

Deutsche Bank AG (DB) has settled a securities lawsuit filed by shareholders accusing the financial institution of misrepresenting the degree of risk it could manage related to mortgage debt before the financial crisis of 2008. The deal, of which the terms have not yet been revealed, were disclosed in a filing made by the firm’s lawyers in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Shareholders, including two mutual funds and the Building Trades United Pension Trust Fund of Elm Grove, claim Deutsche Bank misled them about the management of risk and the underwriting on the mortgage debt that it put together and sold. They also contend that the firm was too slow to take write-downs. They believe that this resulted in an 87% decline in the bank’s share price between May 2007 and January 2009.

They also claim that Deutsche Bank maximized its profit at risk to investors, even as it failed to appraise these customers of the risks they were taking on. When the financial markets failed, it was investors that ended up paying the price.

The securities agreement was reached in the wake of a US district judge refusing to let the shareholder lawsuit become a class action case. Judge Katherine Forrest said that there were problems with the methods and conclusions arrived at by an expert that the plaintiffs had retained.

The settlement comes right after Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the Federal Housing Finance Agency over the mortgage-backed securitiesit sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA believes that the bank and other financial firms misled the two government-sponsored mortgage companies about borrowers’ creditworthiness and the quality of loans. It also contends that the firms sold Fannie and Freddie flawed securities. (The two entities, which sold these mortgage as securities to investors, suffered huge mortgage losses when the economic crisis struck in 2008.)

Also, Deutsche Bank, along with others banks, has just agreed to settle with the European Union over interbank offered rate manipulation allegations. The banks are accused of manipulating the Yen London interbank offered rate and the Euribor. Of the $2.3B in total that is to be paid, $992 million will come from Deutsche Bank.

At The Resolution Law Group, our securities lawyers are still working with institutional and individual investors to get their money back from this tumultuous time in our economic history.

Contact our securities fraud lawyers to request your free case consultation. You may have grounds for a claim involving mortgage-backed securities, residential mortgage-backed securities, auction-rate securities, real estate investment trusts, municipal bonds, and other financial instruments. You want to work with an experienced law firm that knows how to pursue your claim and is not afraid to go after the big banks.

According to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Countrywide Securities Corp. (CFC) will pay $17 million to settle residential mortgage backed securities claims. The settlement includes $6 million to be paid to the Commonwealth and $11.3 million to investors with the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board. Countrywide is a Bank of America (BAC) unit.

Coakley’s office was the first in the US to start probing and pursuing Wall Street securitization firms for their involvement in the subprime mortgage crisis. Other RMBS settlements Massachusetts has reached include: $34M from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), $36M from Barclays Bank (ADR), $52 million from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), $102 million from Morgan Stanley (MS), and $60 million from Goldman Sachs. (GS).

Meantime, a federal judge is expected to rule soon on how much Bank of America will pay in a securities fraud verdict related to the faulty mortgages that Countrywide sold investors. A jury had found the bank and ex-Countrywide executive Rebecca Mairone liable for defrauding Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae via the sale of loans through that banking unit. The US government wants Bank of America to pay $863.6 million in damages. Mairone denies any wrongdoing.

The case focused on “High Speed Swim Lane,” a mortgage lending process that rewarded employees for the volume of loans produced rather than the quality. Checkpoints that should have made sure the loans were solid were eliminated.

In other recent Countrywide news, a federal judge has given final approval to Bank of America’s $500 million settlement with investors who say the unit misled them, which is why they even invested in high-risk mortgage debt. A number of investors, including union and public pension funds, said they were given offering documents about home loans backing the securities that they purchased and that the content of this paperwork was misleading. They contend that a lot of securities came with high credit ratings that ended up falling to “junk status” as conditions in the market deteriorated.

This payout is the biggest thus far to resolve federal class action securities litigation involving mortgage-backed securities. The second largest was the $315 million reached with Merrill Lynch (MER), which is also a Bank of America unit. That agreement was approved in 2012.

Also, Bank of America was recently named the defendant in a lawsuit filed by the California city of Los Angeles over allegedly discriminatory lending practices that the plaintiff says played a part in causing foreclosures. LA is also suing Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

The city says that Bank of America offered “predatory” loan terms that led to discrimination against minority borrowers. This resulted in foreclosures that caused the City’s property-tax revenues to decline. BofA, Wells Fargo, and Citibank have said that the claims are baseless.

If you feel you are the victim of Securities Fraud, please do not hesitate to email or call the The Resolution Law Group (203) 542-7275 for a confidential, no obligation consultation.

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) has arrived at a $591 million mortgage settlement with Fannie Mae (FNMA). The arrangement resolves claims that the banking institution sold faulty mortgages to the government run-home loan financier and covers loans that Wells Fargo originated more than four years ago.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMCC) were taken over by the US government five years ago as they stood poised to fail due to faulty loans they bought from Wells Fargo and other banks. The two mortgage companies had bundled the mortgages with securities.

With this deal, Wells Fargo will pay $541 million in cash to Fannie Mae while the rest will be taken care of in credits from previous buy backs.

It was just a couple of months ago that Wells Fargo settled its disputes over faulty loans it sold to Freddie Mac with an $869 million mortgage buyback deal. According to Compass Point Research and Trading LLC, between 2005 and 2008, Wells Fargo sold $345 billion of mortgages to Freddie Mac. Compass says the bank sold another $126 billion to Freddie in 2009.

Also settling with Freddie Mac today is Flagstar Bank (FBC) for $10.8M over loans it sold to the mortgage company between 2000 and 2008. That agreement comes following Flagstar and Fannie Mae settling mortgage claims for $93 million over loans the former sold to the latter between January 2000 and December 31, 2008.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been trying to get banks to repurchase these trouble loans for some time now. In light of this latest settlement with Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae has reached settlements of about $6.5 billion over loan buy backs, including a $3.6 billion deal with Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Countrywide Financial Corp. and $968 million with Citigroup (C). Earlier this month, Deutsche Bank (DB) consented to pay $1.9 billion to the Federal Housing Finance Agency over claims that it misled Freddie and Fannie about the mortgage backed securities that the latter two purchased from the bank.

If you feel you are the victim of Securities Fraud, please do not hesitate to email or call the The Resolution Law Group (203) 542-7275 for a confidential, no obligation consultation.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is looking at a system that would let the SRO run analytics on the customers accounts at brokerage firms that would allow it to identify “red flags” involving business and sales misconduct involving branches, firms, and registered representatives. The agency is now seeking comments for its proposal for the Comprehensive Automatic Risk Data System (CARDS).

Upon implementation of CARDS, clearing firms and self-clearing firms would regularly turn in, in standardized, automated format, specific data about customer accounts and the customers accounts of each member account that they clear for. This would allow FINRA to conduct analytics so it can identify excessive commissions, churning, markups, pump and dump scamps, and mutual fund switches. The information would also be used to examine broker-dealers.

FINRA says it wants to be able to find the risks and red flags earlier. According to a notice from the SRO, the agency says that this type of automated reporting would get rid of some of the one-off reporting that brokerage firms now have to engage in. This would also let FINRA compare broker-dealers and identify trends and patterns in the industry.

CARDS is part of FINRA’s efforts, since the 2008 financial crisis, to go from depending on individual financial firm exams to surveillance that is broader and occurs on an ongoing basis. The SRO says it conducted a successful trial of CARDS earlier in 2013. 300 introducing firms were involved.

To make CARDS a working reality, brokers might have to gather historical data. Meantime, clearing firms would need to construct a system that would let them turn in the information and oversee data transmission. FINRA CEO and Chairman Robert Ketchum said that the purpose of CARDS isn’t to “replace the compliance officer.” He said the SRO wants to be able to swiftly place attention on firms and their branches where there may be a “concentration in assets that are more likely to be hit.”

The Resolution Law Group works with institutional investors and high net worth individual investors to get back their money that they lost due to securities fraud. Contact our broker fraud law firm today.